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Shark Tale
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MPAA Rating: PG
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Entertainment: +3
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Content: +1
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In this animated comedy, Oscar (voice of Will Smith) the fish has dreams of improving his lot in life. Lenny (Jack Black) the shark seeks acceptance by his family for who he is. These two storylines converge when Lennys brother, Frankie (Michael Imperioli), is killed as a boat anchor is inadvertently dropped on him. Oscar happens to be in the vicinity, and passersby believe that he killed the fierce shark. Seeing an opportunity to gain some acclaim, Oscar accepts the title of the shark slayer and is propelled into fame and fortune. Gentle Lenny realizes that with his brothers death he is expected to take over the family business as a mobster, but he decides against returning home to be something that he is not. He and Oscar forge an alliance and friendship as they spin in spinning a shark tale of gigantic proportions. Other voices in the all-star cast are Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, Peter Falk and Katie Couric.
As a movie designed to appeal to children, Shark Tale has a message that is morally fishy. First, Oscar the fish is an opportunist always looking to attain the easy life the easy way. He struggles with a gambling problem and borrows money from a mobster shark. Second, a great deal of deception occurs throughout this film from falsifying time cards at work to staging a fake death to hide the truth from others. Oscar shallowly seeks to fulfill his lustful desires with a sexy female over choosing to love the female fish who was loyal to him when he was a nobody. Lenny the Shark has been afraid to come out of the closet with his secret vegetarianism, something that would not be well received by his family of meat eaters. Lenny fears that he wont be accepted and comes across as wimpy and borderline effeminate. Many will fall for the laughs hook, line and sinker, but Shark Tale is somewhat of a moral stinker.
Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Dreamworks
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Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.
Crude Language: Few (4) times moderate (butt 4)
Obscene Language: Once moderate (poo 1)
Profanity: Once moderate (G forbid 1)
Violence: Many times mild (chase scenes; slapping; mobster intimidation; one shark hits another shark; the one being hit says, Mom says its not nice to hit, and the other shark says, Yeah but Mom is not here); moderate (fighting, fish has a black eye due to an implied beating, shark acts like hes eating a fish with violent flailings); strong (one shark commands another shark to eat a shrimp, and the shrimp pleads for his life; jellyfish shock each other and various other fish, a shark is killed by a boat anchor being dropped on him)
Sex: None
Nudity: Mild (fish peep into the apartment window of an elderly females fish as she is apparently indecent nothing inappropriate shown)
Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times mild (a sexy female fish swishes her fins and dances in a seductive manner, innuendo)
Drugs: None
Other: Oh my gosh! and Who in the Halibut are expressions used as is the line May his stinking, maggot-covered corpse rot in the fiery depths of hell; bets are placed on seahorse racing, and one fish has a particularly serious problem with gambling; a fish lies about killing a shark and perpetuates that lie; an older fish has a flatulence problem, and the gas kills a whale; kid fish are involved in putting graffiti on billboards, the sides of whales and various buildings
Running Time: 90 minutes
Intended Audience: Older children
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